Tymoshenko's Bloc, the Our Ukraine party of President Viktor Yushchenko, and the Socialists agreed on a coalition on June 22.

The three parties led Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution but their alliance later collapsed. The agreement on June 22 came after three months of tense negotiations.

The main stumbling bloc in the negotiations since parliamentary elections in March had been Tymoshenko's insistence that she should be given the premiership.

Yushchenko fired her as prime minister last year.

Tymoshenko's nomination has been submitted to Yushchenko for consideration, who has then to forward it to parliament. A vote is expected next week.

(Interfax-Ukraine, AP)

Spotlight On Yuliya Tymoshenko

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Former Prime Minister YULIYA TYMOSHENKO has long been a controversial figure in Ukrainian politics. A former economist and head of Unified Energy Systems (EES) of Ukraine from Dnipropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine, Tymoshenko served as deputy prime minister for energy in the cabinet of Viktor Yushchenko, when he was prime minister under former President Leonid Kuchma. She has faced legal troubles linked to corruption allegations both in Ukraine and in Russia, although all cases against her have now been dropped. Tymoshenko was a firebrand of the opposition movement during the 2004 Orange Revolution, leading demonstrators to surround the presidential administration and issuing ultimatums to the Kuchma government. In March 2005, President Viktor Yushchenko named her prime minister, a post that she held until September of that year. In August, on the occasion of the six-month anniversary of her appointment, Tymoshenko spoke with RFE/RL at length, discussing, among other things, the then-looming gas conflict with Russia and the likelihood of a "difficult and dirty" battle in the upcoming parliamentary elections....(more)